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Rehearse, try, practice, experiment. These are the verbs of the studio realm: the safe space where dancers learn choreography, work through notes, and polish steps until they are gleaming and ready. But even with extensive rehearsals, what happens next involves an element of unpredictability: presenting the work before a live audience.
Something intangible, seemingly magic, has to happen in the translation of a work from rehearsal to performance. Three experts weigh in on the element of je ne sais quoi that transforms dance from studio to stage, from athletic feat to performance art.
Find Your Emotions
When Oregon Ballet Theatre principal Eva Burton approaches a new role, she trains not just her muscle memory in the studio but also her “emotional memory.” Before beginning rehearsals, she says, “I spend time listening to the music and thinking about the feeling that I’m supposed to have, or that I want to have, and trying to create that emotion.” That preparation carries her from rehearsal to show. “It’s almost like a Pavlovian response,” she says. “I can hear the music and it happens naturally. The emotion comes to the surface.”
Burton employs her music-driven technique for both plotless and narrative works. For the latter, being immersed in the story can help dancers find deeper expression. When Houston Contemporary Dance Company took on its first immersive work, The House—a piece choreographed by Nao Kusuzaki about acclaimed author Harper Lee and Houston native Barbara Jordan—artistic director Marlana Doyle encouraged homework. “The dancers got their characters before we took our winter break,” says Doyle, “and they were able to do their own research and compare notes.” Learning about the real-life figures’ experiences enabled the dancers to more fully embody their characters when they performed in the unique venue of a historic house.
Preparation, Preparation, Preparation
“When you’re training for a 5K, you don’t train to do a 5K. You train to do a 10K,” says Amit Shah, founder and creative director of AATMA Performing Arts, an Indian cultural dance school and professional touring company. Before performing in front of a live audience, dancers should prepare as thoroughly as possible, with the understanding that unexpected variables are inevitably part of live performance. Because Shah brings his touring productions to venues of different sizes around the world, he has dancers run the choreography multiple times for stamina and rehearse in full costume and makeup—he’ll even rent basketball courts to rehearse in if he knows the company will need to adapt to a large stage. At performance time, Shah says, “you want to be able to enjoy that moment so much that all these other variables mean nothing.”
Beyond the physical challenges of getting used to a new space, it’s important to rehearse emotive expression, as well. Doyle says that doing something full-out with feeling for the first time in front of an audience is a good way to throw yourself off. “I’ve seen it happen over my many years,” warns Doyle. “Dancers hold back until they get to the stage, and then they fall over and are upset. And I’m like, ‘Well, you didn’t do it that full-out in rehearsal, so your body is not ready.’ ”
Performance Psychology
Even with multiple rehearsals onstage, the performance experience will likely be different. A transition step rehearsed a hundred times might feel foreign in front of an audience, or the stage lights might feel hotter. “A lot of it is psychology,” says Shah. “You think, This is the moment.”
The adrenaline, the pressure—these are some of the intangible elements that shift the dynamics from studio to stage. With 14 years of professional experience, Burton still gets performance jitters. Her relationship with the music helps. “Since I have trained myself to have a certain response to hearing the music, it’s been really helpful with my nerves,” she explains.
Burton also had a recent breakthrough with a performance counselor. She realized that when premiering a new work, she always felt like she had to work harder. With people watching, she says, “I feel more exposed and like I have to do more.” She has now reframed her thinking: to trust all of the work she put in during rehearsal and to find a sense of enjoyment and play in the movement during a performance. “I can just do what I know I can do, and I don’t have to put the expectation of it being better than in the studio. That makes me feel way more relaxed, and then it ends up going better than it did in rehearsal.”
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